I knew he would not come, notwithstanding, I sent him money (non-standard). The semicolon should be used before these adverbs instead of the comma. There was so much to talk about we didn’t have much time.Īdverbs such as “however,” “therefore,” “hence,” “consequently,” “notwithstanding” and “nevertheless” cannot be used after the joining comma. If any of the conjunctions listed above will not be used in such a sentence, then the comma must be replaced with a semicolon: There was so much to talk about, we didn’t have much time (non-standard). The general reader should be in the know that using only the comma in the sentences above, without the conjunction, will result in a poorly punctuated sentence. I have bought a washing machine, so doing the laundry will be very easy. There was so much to talk about, but we didn’t have much time. Lagos used to be the seat of the Federal Government, and it is still the commercial hub of the country. Next, the joining comma is used to join two independent clauses to form a sentence with the use of the coordinating conjunctions such as: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. The meals I enjoy are pizza, beans and chicken and chips. The sentence will be clumsy if written as: The comma after “beans” makes it easy to tell that “chicken and chips” makes a meal. The meals I enjoy are pizza, beans, and chicken and chips. It should, nevertheless, be mentioned that the listing comma is important if it makes clear the meaning and association of items at the end of a sentence, as in: Her known friends were Bisi, Kemi and Dayo (common in British English). Her known friends were Bisi, Kemi, and Dayo (common in American English). That listing comma placed before the conjunction “or” or “and”, or after the penultimate item in a list, is otherwise called the Oxford comma. Note that it is not a common practice to use the listing comma before the conjunction “and” or “or” in British English, but this is common in American English. I came and I saw and I conquered (acceptable). I came, I saw and I conquered (acceptable). Note that, sometimes, for stylistic purposes, a conjunction may be used throughout, instead of the comma: I speak Yoruba, I speak English, but I don’t know a word in Spanish. I know you, your brother and your sister. It is used to separate the item(s) before the last two: The listing comma is used when three or more words or longer grammatical units have to be joined together. I shall discuss four kinds of the comma in this article, namely: the listing comma, the joining comma, the gapping comma and the bracketing commas. The comma, likewise, helps achieve intermittent breaks in sentences. Since no one speeds from one end to another, the brake is always inevitable when one drives, especially if it is a long distance. The comma (,) is to a sentence what the brake is to a vehicle. For this reason, this piece will discuss, more specifically, the comma and its functions. However, it has been observed that many written works are characterised by the excessive or wrong use of punctuation marks. I have discussed the functions of punctuation marks in one of my treatises. It is, therefore, important to choose the right words and combine them carefully to avoid the ambiguities and confusions that could be created through the use of punctuation marks.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |